Documentdb Lands Under Linux Foundation Governance

DocumentDB is now officially hosted by the Linux Foundation, transitioning to a vendor-neutral model that promises to shape the future of document-based NoSQL technologies. Microsoft‐developed and built on PostgreSQL, the database has garnered substantial interest, earning nearly 2,000 GitHub stars and drawing contributions from a broad developer community since its debut in early 2025. The Linux Foundation's governance will secure open‐source stewardship and foster collaboration across the tech ecosystem.

Under this new arrangement, DocumentDB retains its MIT license and remains PostgreSQL‐first, while being positioned for broader interoperability and standardisation in the NoSQL space.

Microsoft's motivations echo a broader shift in database governance.“We built DocumentDB with a simple goal: give developers an open document database with the flexibility of NoSQL and the power, reliability, openness, and ecosystem of Postgres,” said Kirill Gavrylyuk, vice‐president at Microsoft. He emphasised that the project's growing community support and the need for transparency and developer‐first principles led to its stewardship under the Linux Foundation.

Support from major industry players is already underway. Amazon Web Services has joined the Technical Steering Committee to help guide the project's trajectory, underscoring the promise of interoperable tools and portability for developers. Google Cloud has publicly welcomed the alignment with open governance that ensures customers and developers maintain access to robust, open‐source options.

Several other organisations-including Cockroach Labs, Snowflake, Supabase, Rippling, SingleStore, Ubicloud, and Yugabyte-have committed to participation, signalling widespread industry investment in the project. Support from long‐time PostgreSQL contributors further strengthens the foundation for future development.

Veterans of the PostgreSQL ecosystem have voiced their optimism. Bruce Momjian, founding member of the PostgreSQL core team, called DocumentDB“an interesting alternative” for users seeking open‐source implementations of document databases, adding that using PostgreSQL as its foundation is both logical and promising.

The broader context for this move reflects growing unease about restrictive licensing in open source projects. DocumentDB offers a clear counter‐narrative to licences like the SSPL, which MongoDB introduced in 2018, by maintaining permissive terms and promoting broader access and flexibility.

The Linux Foundation's promise of independent governance will likely enable more structured collaboration through a Technical Steering Committee and maintainers to manage contributions and technical direction. The project's aim is to walk a similar path to the ANSI SQL standard, but for document‐style data-opening a potential route toward a unified, community‐driven approach to NoSQL.

Enterprises stand to gain from this shift. By moving away from closed‐vendor dependencies, organisations adopting DocumentDB can expect reduced lock‐in risk and greater confidence in long‐term stability, backed by community governance and continued investment from major cloud providers.

MENAFN29082025000152002308ID1109992184